Back on the road again

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Well I've not had much of interest to tell you as we've pretty much been doing sweet FA! Lying on the beach, swimming, and generally relaxing. Its been far too hot to do much else though to be fair!

We're now back on the road though and it was a bit of a shock to the system after the relative luxury of Goa. The train down to Mangalore was a bit of an adventure as it was just a local train where you have fight your way onto the train with everyone else as there are no reservations. We managed to get on relatively easily helped by some very nice guys from Mangalore who had been up in Goa for the weekend.

We set off two hours late which was a bit of a shame as the view from the train was amazing but it got dark about half way along. If we had left on time it would have been light most of the way down. However we watched the sun setting over hills and huge paddy fields and inland waterways, with small fishing boats milling around. It was possibly the first glimpse we have had of the idilic unspoilt country side you try to find when you are travelling.

We met two Norweigian guys on the train and spent most of the way down chatting to them. We stayed in the same hotel as them last night and might travel a bit further south with them.

Mangalore is rarely visited by westerners and it shows. Its quite dirty (but not as dirty as some of the places we visited up north) but there is no hassle and the people have been very helpful so far even if the language barrier has been a bit of a problem. There doesn't seem to be too much to see here apart from a few churches and temples but it is a cheap and pleasant enough stop off to avoid having to do an overnight train.

I had better go now though as we have another train to catch down to Kannur (Cannanore) in Kerala in a couple of hours. We should be there for a couple of days and I'll keep you posted on how we get on.

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